Disaster Perspective

It only took me a couple of minutes to find the crazy ones. The ones that linked God's Wrath with the floods in Colorado. I grew up there. My family lives there. By coincidence, my younger brother happened to be visiting my mother and older brother in Boulder when the floods hit. This weather phenomenon was enough to get the crazies to line up and start pointing to the heavens exclaiming how this was punishment for all the misdeeds of those who chose to live in the path of the torrential storms that parked over the front range of the Rocky Mountains at the end of last week.
These were some of the same yahoos and googles who lined up on comment boards across our country to sneer and guffaw at the people of the eastern seaboard who suffered devastating losses of home and life during Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. Access to Al Gore's Internet is not limited to those with compassion, it would seem. There are plenty of people, warm and dry in their concrete bunkers awaiting the Apocalypse with some time on their hands, more than happy to spew their bile at whatever crisis or circumstance fits their vision of the End of Times. I will pause here for a moment to point out that besides inventing the Internet, Al Gore also invented Global Warming.
The saddest part of this strained interaction is that there is no sense of proportion. The idea that somehow every living soul that endured the Wrath of God somehow invited it upon themselves. My mother, who took care of generations of kids' loose teeth and fed them when they were dragged home by her own kids? My older brother, the sheriff's officer who has served and protected the town in which he grew up for decades? My younger brother who just happened to be in town to visit his mother, on a brief vacation from his job of driving the elderly and infirm around town in the city where he lives?
I know. It's Boulder. There's a great big, blue target on it ever since I can remember. But it's not God's Judgement that brought the rains. It was a Hundred Year's Flood that has been forecast for as long as I can remember that finally happened. It wasn't the hippies or the gun control lobby. It was the weather. The Front Range is terribly susceptible to this kind of flooding, and if there was a thought about relocating because of the potential of such a disaster most of the people who call Boulder home didn't give it a thought because it is, after all, their home.
Just like the Bay Area is mine now. It sends a shiver down my spine when I think of what the response will be when the godless denizens of this Sodom-by-the-sea experiences the big earthquake that is forecast for this location anytime. Or, I could focus on the efforts of those who are working to rescue, rebuild and bring comfort to those who experience such disasters. They're far too busy to spend time typing snarky comments on chat pages. They're making lives work. Those are the noodly appendages of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at work.